Friday, September 23, 2011

Tiluland - Axes Of The Universe (2011)

Prepare yourself for an extraordinary adventure with the guitar and synth Gods Tiluland. They are a two man band that consist of Arwe, the guitarist, and Gimi, the keyboardist. Together they have released their album, entitled "Axes Of The Universe." It is completely made up of thunderous guitars and beautiful melodic synths. All nine songs on the album are instrumental tracks and are packed with fast pace electrifying action.

The intro "Prologue (To The Kings)" sounds like a score written from Avatar with its epic strings and gorgeous orchestration. The notes are uplifting and really give a good build up to the album. "Tilu Of The Kings" fades in with catchy guitar riffs layered with rapid double bass pedal drumming that ignites the flame to this astonishing track. The soft strings consume you while you are tossed around in a whirling pool of notes. The guitar leads the other instruments almost like a vocal in the song. This leads right into "March Of Immortals," which has the lead guitar playing quick scales up and down as heavy chugging guitars fill the background. The beginning riffs sound similar to Dream Theater, as the chords pound away at you with explosive snares and kicks behind them. This is definitely a track that you'll be pumping your fists to.

You'll run into more fast detailed melodic riffs in "Heroes" that will just blow you away. Epic strings build up in the middle of the song almost as if it's the chorus. The riffs are absolutely stunning with clear synths backing them up. Meanwhile the drums are just blasting away with booming double bass and violent cymbals crashing from left to right. "Arctic Twilight" is built similar with its machine gun double bass pedaling. The guitars are just relentless with their hell raising solos and magnificent detail in structure. "Warrior's Anthem" is the one softer songs on the album that includes some mellow acoustic guitars in the beginning as the strings carry them into the distorted guitars that are waiting in the middle. The lead guitar really plays well as a vocal in this song almost as if the instrument is singing to you. Make sure you check this song out.

The last three tracks combine into one large tracks, entitled "Epic Tilu Fantasy." Part one, "A Grand Tale," opens with angelic piano notes surrounded by gorgeous orchestrated strings. This breaks into heavy guitars chugging catchy riffs and while drums beginning to charge at you with heavy bass. This eventually runs into part two, "Axes Of The Universe." This fades in with soothing strings for only a few second until reckless upbeat guitars come soaring in. The solos played in this song are so incredibly fast that you might want to hit replay a couple of times to catch everything that is thrown at you. By this time you have gone through a little over 8 minutes as part one and two are both about four minutes long. Then you'll come across the final part, "Kaamos," which by itself plays for over eight minutes long. More reckless guitar riffs come rolling in with dark synths in the background. As the melody changes, the drumming patterns constantly change from detailed fill to detailed fill. The notes that are played are just astounding and provide such a beautiful image to the album. Before you know it you'll be playing all three parts over and over again because they're just that damn good.

You would think that, playing this symphonic style of music with similar instruments, after a while most of the songs sound the same. Well, it's a different story for Tiluland. They manage to provide a clear and unique sound in each song where you can actually recognize each track individually and know which song is which. "Axes Of The Universe" shows a whole different side to symphonic song writing and orchestrated instrumentation. This is definitely an album you do not want to miss!